Late last year, General Motors (GM) announced that it would close a plant in Ontario, Canada, to save money. In recent months, the company has backtracked on that decision, saving over 300 jobs. However, the plant current employs 2,600 workers, so many more will still lose their jobs. The plant in Oshawa, east of Toronto was scheduled to close completely at the end of this … [Read more...]
Ford Reduces European Workforce
Last month Ford announced the closure of an engine plant in South Wales as part of a drive to close unprofitable operations. 2,000 workers will be affected and they built an EcoBoost motor for the company. It is one of the largest employers in the small town of Bridgend and its closure will affect the town quite badly. Ford had invested over £300m in the plant over the last … [Read more...]
Waymo to Build Complete Autonomous Vehicles
Back in January it was reported that Waymo was partnering with Magna, the contract vehicle builder, to start assembling full autonomous vehicles in Michigan. Magna, based in Canada now owns Magna Steyr, an Austrian company that used to build their own cars however in the last few decades has been building cars for others including Jaguar. At the time, the Michigan Economic … [Read more...]
Ford Considering New Sedan
Ford has announced that they will create a new “affordable” nameplate in a couple of years. It seems that many owners of Ford’s passenger cars are unhappy that they have dropped the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Taurus plates from their home market. The only real car that they now sell in the US is the Mustang with other Cross-Over Utility (CUV) and Sports Utility (SUV) … [Read more...]
Rack and Pinion Steering
Rack and Pinion Steering on cars is one of those inventions that appeared early on in the life of the automobile and was taken from another source. Many early components on cars started out life being used by other machines before being enhanced and evolving into something far more complex. The simplest explanation of how it works is that the steering column has a classical … [Read more...]